Unobtanium

Fictional record. This page describes a mining commodity from a fictional setting, not a real material. Information is based on the cited canon, with adaptations and interpretation distinguished where necessary. It is kept separate from the real MineArchive corpus — see Fictional.

The mineral the Resources Development Administration came to Pandora for in Avatar: a rare room-temperature superconductor whose magnetic properties float whole mountains, selling on Earth for twenty million dollars a kilogram unrefined.

Where it occurs

Only on Pandora, the moon of the gas giant Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri system, where it formed, by the setting's theory, when a Mars-sized body struck the molten moon and its disrupted core met Polyphemus's magnetic field. Its concentrations, which the RDA calls flux cons, make the Hallelujah Mountains hang in the air and lie beneath the Na'vi's most sacred places: the largest known deposit was under the Omatikaya Hometree.

How it's obtained

Open-cast mining by the RDA with remotely operated bulldozers and heavy plant, from the mine on file and from deposits the Na'vi would not surrender. The Na'vi's own law, the Three Laws of Eywa, forbids them to mine or use ore at all.

Properties

A superconductor at room temperature with zero electrical resistance and no cooling needed, with the strongest known resistance to magnetic penetration and the ability, in some conditions, to trap intense fields inside itself, so that a sample floats. The tie-in material gives it element number 120 and treats it as a compound despite the element-style name, and prices it at twenty million dollars a kilogram raw and forty million refined.

Why it's valuable

The reason for the human presence on Pandora and the cause of the war with the Na'vi. The RDA held a monopoly on its mining, transport and sale and, in the tie-in account, suppressed any synthetic alternative on Earth. The fall of Hometree and the battle that expelled the RDA from Pandora both followed from the mining. When the RDA returned, 3.2 trillion dollars' worth left behind on the moon was still worth fighting over, though the company's first aim had shifted to the anti-ageing substance amrita.

Uses

Superluminal communications, hyperchip manufacture, energy transmission; on Earth, by the setting's account, the backbone of the economy.

Canon & adaptations

The film states the price and the superconductivity; the origin story, the element number, the refined price and the RDA's suppression of alternatives come from the Pandorapedia and the Activist Survival Guide tie-in, which the records here keep distinct. The word itself is an aerospace engineers' joke from the 1950s for the ideal material that cannot be had, and the setting's own guide says the spelling was changed to look like an element.

Recorded claims

Each claim is marked with its basis — explicit canon, MineArchive inference, adaptation only, or fandom interpretation — and attached to the source(s) below. Where tellings disagree, both are kept.

• Unobtanium is a high-temperature superconductor whose ore sells for twenty million dollars a kilogram and whose presence floats the Hallelujah Mountains. (explicit canon) ^1,2
• The largest known deposit lay under the Omatikaya Hometree, and the richest concentrations fall under the Na'vi's sacred sites. (MineArchive inference) ^1,2
• The RDA held a monopoly on the mining, transport and sale of unobtanium to Earth, and its mining was the primary cause of the conflict with the Na'vi. (MineArchive inference) ^1,2
• After the RDA's expulsion 3.2 trillion dollars' worth of unobtanium remained on Pandora, and the company resumed mining it on its return. (adaptation only, uncertain) ²
• The word is an aerospace engineering joke recorded in a 1958 US Air Force glossary for a material with the properties required but not obtainable. (fandom interpretation) ³

Fictional mines producing this

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis.

• The Unobtanium Mine (RDA ESM 01)
  The RDA's open-cast working on Pandora, the sole source.

Sources

1. (authorised secondary) Unobtanium — Pandorapedia — Avatar.com (20th Century Studios)
2. (interpretation) Unobtanium — James Cameron's Avatar Wiki — Avatar Wiki (Fandom), citing the film, Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide and the Pandorapedia; read through the MediaWiki API
3. (interpretation) Unobtainium — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
4. (primary canon) Avatar — screenplay by James Cameron — Internet Movie Script Database

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026